Options traders have turned sharply bullish on AME — but short sellers are moving in the opposite direction. That divergence is the sharpest signal in this week's data.
The put/call ratio for AME hit 0.30 on May 27. That's near a 52-week low. The 20-day average sits at 0.48. The current reading is 1.7 standard deviations below that mean.
In plain terms: options traders are buying calls at an unusually high rate relative to puts. That's a bullish positioning signal.
Yet short interest rose 10.6% in a single day on May 27, reaching 1.63% of free float. The weekly gain is 10.2%. The one-month gain is 16.2%. Short sellers have added positions steadily since early May, with the sharpest acceleration arriving this week.
The two signals point in different directions. That tension is worth watching.
Cost to borrow climbed 55% over the past week to 0.29%. That sounds dramatic. The absolute level is not. At 0.29%, borrowing AME shares remains cheap and easy.
Availability confirms this. With over 228 million shares available to borrow, the lending pool is effectively unconstrained. Availability stands far above 1,000% — deep in "loose" territory. Short sellers face no squeeze risk from the borrow market at these levels.
The CTB move is a signal of rising demand for borrows, not a sign of a stressed lending market.
Five analyst actions followed AME's Q1 earnings on May 1. Truist raised its target to $275. DA Davidson held at $265. RBC lifted to $260. All three maintained Buy or Outperform ratings. Barclays, more cautious, raised its Equal-Weight target to $230 from $220.
The mean analyst target stands at $259. AME closed at $226 on May 27. That implies roughly 14.5% upside to consensus — a wide gap for a stock with a short score of just 30.7.
The analyst recommendation difference factor ranks at the 92nd percentile. That's a strong reading. Analysts are significantly more bullish than the market price currently reflects.
The next earnings event is July 31. Short interest at 1.63% of float is low by any absolute measure. But the pace of accumulation — 16% in a month — is notable for a quality industrial name trading at 26.9x earnings. Whether the options bulls or the short builders are reading the setup correctly should become clearer heading into that print.
Data summary
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open AME on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
